iSoftStone Leads Smart City Workshop

iSoftStone Leads Smart City Workshop

iSoftStone Leads Smart City Workshop As Part Of Kirkland Startup Weekend

October 27, 2016 — iSoftStone North America Director of Smart Cities & IoT, Greta Knappenberger, recently hosted an introductory smart city workshop. The workshop took place at Nytec in Kirkland, and was one in a series of four sessions led by smart city experts. The sessions served as a kick starter for Kirkland’s Smart City Startup Weekend, November 4th-6th, 2016. Startup Weekend provides attendees the opportunity to share their vision for smarter cities, as well as channel their creativity. Attendees explore and create technology to mitigate the environmental impact of urban sprawl.

Greta Knappenberger, a skilled leader in both startup and large international Smart City initiatives, shared her industry expertise in an interactive session. The workshop discussions focused on urban innovation and collaboration between startups, entrepreneurs, researchers, and the general public. Together, these groups are transforming cities, both regionally and across the globe.

Key Takeaways From The Workshop

To summarize, Greta focused on three key areas including:

Transformation of cities: The trends and challenges impacting cities. From rapid urbanization to the need to modernize, and related opportunities for new businesses.

Characteristics of Smart Cities: What is a Smart City? And, what are some ways that startups and entrepreneurs are building new solutions in this growing industry.

Future Innovation: How startups can harness this new Smart City ecosystem by adopting strategies such as open data and open procurement.

Additionally, the event took place on October 21st, Back to the Future Day. As a result, Greta felt it was only right to reference the 1985 classic to drive discussion around the future of cities as seen in the past.

“Greta’s smart city workshop was informative and impactful,” said iSoftStone Director, Curran O’Brien. “It was and full of interesting new thoughts and ideas on the smart city movement. Greta perfectly laid out the immense opportunity for innovators of all sizes to impact the well-being of citizens. I also love how she perfectly tied in references to Back to the Future!”

If you are interested in redesigning how cities in the Puget Sound function as we move into the future, join Greta and other industry leaders for Kirkland Startup Weekend November 4th-6th at Kirkland’s Google campus! If you have a vision for smarter, more sustainable urban spaces, and want to engage with local government and communities to deliver an environment where we can all work, play, grow, prosper, and live comfortably together, then this is an event you don’t want to miss! To register visit: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2016-kirkland-smart-city-startup-weekend-tickets-21018308326.